The Coalition Government released its long-term vision for the future of the NHS in July 2010 in the White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’. The Government announced that, in order to shift decision-making as close as possible to individual patients, power and responsibility for commissioning services will be devolved to local consortia of GP practices. GP consortia are expected to be in place by 1 April 2013 to replace Primary Care Trusts.
This change will bring together responsibility for clinical decisions and for the financial consequences of these decisions. This will reinforce the crucial role that GPs already play in committing NHS resources through their daily clinical decisions – not only in terms of referrals and prescribing, but also how well they manage long-term conditions, and the accessibility of their services.
Practices will have new flexibility within the new legislative framework to form consortia in ways that they think will secure the best healthcare and health outcomes for their patients and locality. The Department has said it wants implementation to be bottom-up, with GP consortia taking on their new responsibilities as rapidly as possible and early adopters promoting best practice.
